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How will the national renewable electricity standard move forward?
A national renewable electricity standard is likely to move forward as part of comprehensive energy and climate legislation. The U.S. House of Representatives passed an energy and climate bill including a national renewable electricity standard on June 26, 2009. The next step in moving energy and climate legislation into law is for the U.S. Senate to pass its version of the bill. The Senate is expected to combine a climate bill with the existing energy bill, as passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June, which also contains a national renewable electricity standard, later this Fall. In order for energy and climate legislation to pass in the Senate, 60 votes will be needed. Garnering this many Senate votes is possible, but it will be a challenge. Senators need to hear from their state residents and businesses about the benefits of this legislation. Please contact your Senators today to express your support!

How can I help?
You can contact your Senators via phone, letter, e-mail or fax and ask that they support strong energy and climate legislation, in particular a strong national renewable electricity standard. Contact information for all U.S. Senators is available here.

What should I say?
Your conversation or letter should be directed to the staff member who works on energy issues. Ideally, this contact will make the staff member more aware of the benefits of the energy legislation in your state, and you will have an understanding of whether or not the Senator will support the legislation.

Introduce yourself.

State your request: for the Senator to support strong energy and climate legislation, and a strong national renewable electricity standard in particular.

Talking points (you are encouraged to personalize these):

♦ An energy bill that contains a strong national renewable electricity standard will send a strong signal to businesses that we are committed to the US manufacturing base, energy independence, clean energy and reducing greenhouse gases.

♦ The renewable electricity standard contained in the energy bill passed by the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee is weak and needs to be strengthened on the Senate floor.

• It calls for 15% renewable electricity by 2021, allowing up to 4% of this requirement to be met through energy efficiency.

• However, the near-term target is 3% by 2011, yet renewables are already contributing 5% of our electricity today.

♦ We need a strong renewable electricity standard, like the one President Obama campaigned for, which would call for 25% of the nation’s electricity to come from renewables by 2025 and set an aggressive near-term target, such as 10% renewable electricity by 2012. Such a standard would create an 8-fold increase in homegrown renewable energy – from 28,000 MW to 248,000 MW, and the following benefits, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists:

• Create hundreds of thousands of jobs and spur economic development:
* 297,000 new jobs;
* $13.5 billion in income to farmers, landowners, and ranchers;
* $11.5 billion in new local tax revenue.

• Save consumers money and protect against price spikes:
* $64.3 billion in consumer savings.

• Reduce greenhouse gas pollution:
* 277 million ton reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 2025 (almost 11% below business as usual).

Ask the Senator’s position on the bill.

Thank the staff member for their time.